Vedic Pandits Go Missing In US

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, January 26, 2014 (NDTV): In a shocking revelation, as many as 163 Indians, most of them brought to the US as teenagers from villages in northern India to be trained into Vedic Pandits by two institutions set up by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of transcendental meditation fame, appear to have gone missing over the last 12 months.

Of the 1,050 young Indians brought to the Maharishi Vedic City and the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, 163 -- some of them just 19 years old -- have gone missing in the last one year, HiIndia, a Chicago-based weekly newspaper for the Indian community, reported in its latest issue.

Even the Global Country of World Peace (GCWP), one of the many teaching centers set up by the India-born spiritual guru, does not know about the plight or flight of these Vedic scholars called "world peace professionals." "They have jumped the fence for immigration purposes or for chasing their American Dream," the newspaper quoted the varsity bosses as saying.

According to sources in the Indian consulate in Chicago, in a situation where an Indian passport holder is considered or presumed gone missing and his passport is left behind, it has to be returned immediately to the nearest Indian mission which has to also be informed about the circumstances in which the Indian citizen went missing.

The Chicago consulate, however, says the GCWP has never returned or deposited any passport and neither has it shared any missing person information. According the sheriff's department and police department of Fairfield, Iowa, no missing person report has ever been filed by the GCWP.